Tracking my trades has made me a better trader. I am able to see which trades work and which don't. The structured trading that I both advocate and teach has the important benefit of being able to be measured. The measurement allows me to make changes both in the pictures I trade and decide whether to take them at all.
One of the pictures that is the most consistent is the Gap trade. I trade it on the Dow Euro 50 and on the ES. I am presently working on extending it to the Euro future. This has proven to be more challenging, as there is no exact open. When the traders roll into the office every morning and get the book handed over to them from the previous time zone, they trade. The actual time is not the same in each of the houses. It is the new beginning and catch up that gives the Gap trade it's juice.
The Gap today in the Dow Euro 50 was nice and calm. Often, I take exactly the same looking trade in the ES 7 hours later as history repeats itself. This trade has been one of the most profitable and consistent in my arsenal. The timing of the trade is critical, as just shooting bullets at the open could result in costly stop outs before the market goes in my direction. I lean on something to do this trade and have the trade meet my picture requirements.
I'm a believer in the Gap Fill trade as well except for massive gap up/down days of course. At the start of the session, I'll take a trade into the gap fill direction, cover 1/3 at half gap fill, another third a few ticks in front of full gap fill and the remaining manage with a trailing stop. Mainly look at ES for this trade.
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